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June 23, 2009
Bloomberg.com
Amity Shlaes considers the elimination of the job of U.S trade representative.
See more in United States, Trade
June 12, 2009
Financial Times
Jagdish N. Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya argue that legal protectionism used indiscriminately could undermine the liberal trading system. When exhortation does not work, the threat of retaliation is needed to deter such protectionism.
June 9, 2009
Amity Shlaes argues, "Europe's stunning fiscal outlays permitted it to pursue tighter monetary policy, while the U.S. used monetary policy as a substitute for European-scale fiscal spending."
See more in Europe/Russia, Germany, International Finance
June 8, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Edward Alden argues, "the U.S. can't afford to keep turning away the best and the brightest."
See more in United States, Economics, Labor, Trade
May 26, 2009
Washington Post
Sebastian Mallaby argues that China’s ideas on international finance are mostly muddled.
See more in China, Financial Crises, International Finance
May 17, 2009
Washington Post
Sebastian Mallaby warns that the international tensions of the 1930s were not just about trade; they were also about exchange rates. And while the world today has a rules-based trading system that staves off protectionism, there is no similar architecture governing exchange rates.
See more in Economics, Financial Crises, International Finance
May 15, 2009
Forbes Online
Benn Steil argues that Keynes's General Theory demonstrably misapprehends the nature of money and the monetary system, and that shorn of its theoretical foundation, "fiscal stimulus" cannot be considered a harmless remedy.
See more in Economics, Financial Crises, U.S. Strategy and Politics
May 8, 2009
Washington Post
Sebastian Mallaby argues that forward-looking stress tests should be made permanent to prevent future financial blowups.
See more in United States, Economics, Financial Crises
May 8, 2009
Forbes Online
Amity Shlaes discusses Wendell Willkie's criticisms of New Deal policies.
See more in United States, Economics, Financial Crises
May 7, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Matthew J. Slaughter argues that "President Obama's recent soundbites suggest an uncompetitive auto industry."
See more in United States, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, Trade
April 22, 2009
Nikkei Financial Daily
Roger M. Kubarych argues that Washington is overly optimistic regarding economic recovery.
See more in United States, Financial Crises
April 21, 2009
Bloomberg.com
Amity Shlaes argues that the new Financial Trust Index offers cause for optimism.
See more in United States, Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
April 21, 2009
Foreign Policy
Brad W. Setser argues that the underlying issues responsible for the financial crisis have yet to be addressed.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
April 7, 2009
Bloomberg.com
Amity Shlaes argues that Washington's rejection of Las Vegas is misguided.
See more in Economics, Financial Crises, U.S. Strategy and Politics
March 27, 2009
Washington Post
Sebastian Mallaby argues that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's ideas on regulation and wind-downs are sensible, but they won't prevent the next crisis or save taxpayers from the cost, making it imperative that the financial industry take on less risk.
See more in United States, Corporate Governance, Financial Crises
March 23, 2009
Forbes Online
Amity Shlaes compares the G-20 summit with the London Economic Conference of 1933.
See more in Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, Foreign Policy History
March 2009, Volume 46, Number 1
Finance and Development
Brad Setser argues that the internal decisions countries make during and after a crisis--rather than their participation in international summits--will be the driving force to reform the international financial system.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance, International Organizations
March 11, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Paul Danos, Matthew J. Slaughter, and Robert G. Hansen argue that the Employ American Workers Act will actually decrease the total amount of jobs available.
See more in Financial Crises, Labor, Immigration
March 4, 2009
Forbes Online
Unlike the world's leaders at the last G20 meeting, President Obama has not turned his rhetoric loose against protectionism. In this Forbes.com article, Jagdish Bhagwati writes that Prime Minister Gordon Brown must ask the president to passionately defend trade and openness.
See more in U.K., Trade, Congress
Subscribe to "This Month in Geoeconomics" newsletter.
In Money, Markets, and Sovereignty, the authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
In contrast to conventional wisdom, the growth in government spending and heightened regulation during the Great Depression may have done much to slow economic recovery.
In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other feaures of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices.
In order for policymakers to tackle today’s global economic crisis, this report argues, they must go beyond bailouts and stimulus packages and focus on one of the crisis's root causes: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.